Understatements Can Certainly Be Made When Dealing With The Last Shadow Puppets
Alex and Miles: you’ve kind of disappointed me today when I gave your full-length a listen. “In The Heat of the Morning,” on the Age of Understatement EP was more than just awesome, so I kind of expected material just as comparable as that on the debut. The Last Shadow Puppets haven’t delivered a terrible album -no, it’s quite good and it’d make a good companion to clean the house to if you’re willing to get distracted once in a while, but the EP was pretty strong, so if you expect The Age of Understatement to be like its EP-namesake, then be prepared to be slightly let down.
“Standing Next To Me” was an excellent song, which came right after the known tune, “The Age of Understatement.” Another song I fairly enjoyed was “Black Plant.” One can probably separate the similarities and differences from Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets, and since I still have yet to listen to The Rascals (which I’m going to, definitely), I can’t exactly say anything about Kanes’ band.
“In My Room” reminds me of James Bond. It has somewhat of a dramatic beginning and sort of stays that way throughout the rest of the song. The first few seconds of “Meeting Place” reminded me of the first few seconds to “I Still Remember” by Bloc Party. It’s definitely a nice track on the album, a subtle melody that isn’t made tacky because of the heavy accents that the singers have.
One of Arctic Monkeys’ gems would have to be “Despair In The Departure Lounge,” which shies away from guitar riffs, and goes for more of a subdued sound, and I would have to say that quite a few of the songs found on this album have the same elements as that one song did. The Last Shadow Puppets have certainly tried, and their effort is obvious here, so after a while, you really can’t complain about why their LP doesn’t sound completely like their EP. However, this is one of those albums that aren’t exactly perfect, but it’s the endeavor that is the charm and key to your pleasure. B+/A-
[download] Meeting Place